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What is World-flight?

World-flight is a "virtual" around the world flight to raise money for Children charities.

The concept of this started back in 1998 when BAA Heathrow employee Lee James flew virtually around the world using his desk top P.C. and Microsoft flight simulator. He raised money for Dreamflight by asking friend and family to donate to the charity. We are not sure of the detail (maybe you can fill us in Lee), but this is were the idea came from.

In 1999 Daren Knightsbridge started to build a home flight deck and after talking to Lee, what better way to have the simulators maiden voyage but to use it to hold a fund raising event. So he set out to get a team and fly his simulator as if it were a real aircraft around the world. So in November the team departed for the first ever World-flight. The team consisted for people from all walks of life, IT workers, Bus Drivers , Truck drivers and airline pilots. All the team members asked members of their families and work colleagues to support them. All the money raised went to the BBC Children in Need Appeal. It was only going to be a one off, but the event was so successful that it has become an annual event. During the past 6 events we have raised over £15,000 for charity.

The popularity of World-flight has grown, teams from other countries have started their own team. We now have a team from Austria, Canada Ireland, Scotland and the USA. The 2006 event is set for us all to fly the same legs for some of the trip. Each team raises money for their own charity, The Austrian team raise money for the royal flying doctor service.

How do we raise money
We have a team of pilots from all walks of life, some are private pilots, airline pilots, bus drivers and even the MD of a major British airport. Each pilot is asked to raise at least £100 by asking his/her family, friends and work colleagues to sponsor them, this is a requirement for them to fly the simulator. During the past 6 years we have been luck to attract corporate sponsorship with some companies donating services to help us and other send cash donations. In past events we have held raffles and a guess the flight time promotion, we the winner receives a prize donated by a corporate sponsor. In 2004 the Gatwick challenge first prize was two tickets to Atlanta, a trip to a flight simulator and a tour of an airline hub, all donated to WF by Delta Airlines. We also have a online donations link were the general public can pledge their support by making a credit card donation via PayPal.

How does the event work
Well, its much the same as real airline operations. We try to operate as realistic as we can (but have fun at the same time). The simulator is as close to the real aircraft as we can get it due to the limits of the home p.c. We are able to have the real weather conditions that are imported into the program so the pilots actually fly the weather conditions of the day, This enables use to use the real world planning data, British airways takes care of that for us. The flight crew check in about 1 hour before the flight and get the weather and route information. Using a virtual air traffic control network, we file our flight plan and a team of controller guide us on our way. These controllers use a air traffic control program to see us on radar, they are at home and usually based in the country we are visiting at the time, we are all connected via the Internet. We are also able to see other aircraft using the network including other WF teams and flight simmers flying their own rotes, ATC keeps us apart as in the real world. We use the real life procedures including the radio. It is a lot of fun flying into a Austrian airport and hearing an Austrian accent on the radio guiding us in. There is about an hours turn around between flight, were we refuel and sometime change crews. This continues until we have flow right around the world. We also have live web cams on during the flights for you to see us. At the end the pilots go off and collect the sponsorship money. This is donated to the charity of the year. 2006 is Dream flight.